Out of respect for this somewhat antiquated notion that anything people like me write will make the blindest bit of difference when you go to vote, I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon, so that it will be posted before midnight and reside on the ‘Net for all time and a day.  Weird, no?

It’s going to be an interesting Local Council Election, when you think about it.  A few months ago, many were confidently predicting that it would also be General Election day, but that fond hope of Labour’s went the way of many fond hopes, poor lambs.  You wouldn’t think this was the case, though, such is the fervent enthusiasm with which they thrown themselves into the fray, with billboards showing a somewhat sheepish PM and telly spots that refer to localities hardly at all and to national issues all the time.

I’ve no idea what’s going on at the locality level, since my Council doesn’t get elected this year (thankfully, because I’d have a very hard time justifying wasting a morning to go and vote, given the way our neck of the woods has been forgotten) but I’ve no doubt that all the prospective Councillors are beavering away like, well, beavers, trying to get their neighbours to vote for them.

And good luck to them – I hope the voters show a modicum more discernment than the parties who are putting up the candidates and don’t vote for total idiots.  Are you reading this, Sliema voters?

One can wonder why Labour are putting so much into this election, which at the end of the day is pretty much a foregone conclusion: the PN are probably going to get creamed, as they always do, both with this bunch of Councils in particular and because people find it easy to vote Labour when it’s only the locality that is concerned.

My take on why Labour are trying so, so hard is that they want to be able to thump their chests and crow loudly when the results are in, to boost their supporters and get all of them well primed for the real contest, which will be when it will be.   When they win handsomely, as I’m pretty sure they will, they will be able to boast that it was their campaign that did it and not the general ennui that is striking down the PN’s voter-base, as it always does, at this sort of time.